Google Launches its Voice-Based Search on iPhone, G1 Must Wait

Google has done it again! They’ve launched a voice based search for the iPhone and the free app is rumoured to be available on the App store, at least some time soon.Â Maybe today. Â The engineers at Google have added the voice recognition technology to their search algorithm, whichÂ only needs you to just whisper your key word in to the iPhone and, lo and behold, you have your search results. On a fast wireless network you can have them in a jiffy!

Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available as soon as Friday through its iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question,like â€œWhereâ€™s the nearest Starbucks?â€ or â€œHow tall is Mount Everest?â€ The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Googleâ€™s servers, which try to determine the words spoken andpass them along to the Google search engine. – John Markoff, NYTimes

The app comes in to play when one has to search for any landmark or directions. This isn’t the first voice based offering from Google and not for a pint the first in the world. Microsoft and Yahoo already have their own voice based services for mobiles. According to John Markoff, the Googles’ version is far from perfect and at times returns queries that tend to be gibberish.

What’s interesting is that Google has launched the voice based search for the iPhone rather than the G1. Google could well keep the new technology for itself that could shoot up the sales of the G1 exponentially. But Google has decided to go with the iPhone first. Google executives admitted that this could result in more ad revenues especially from the local businesses for the location-based services.

The first speech offering from Google was in March, the GOOG-411 which enables users to evoke their business contacts. The iPhone service was partly inspired on the experience with GOOG-411.

So, Google has added one more cap to the iPhone which is already brimming with all its virtues that make it the world’s best selling smart phone.